The study finds that government adoption of cloud is moving slowly but starting to pick up momentum. Roughly a quarter of the governments surveyed have moved ahead in developing a cloud strategy, testing proof of concept and/or partial implementation. Government entities lag their private-sector counterparts in these activities by some nine to 13 percentage points.

For all the frothy cloud hype that permeates the air these days, the public sector seems to hold no revolutionary expectations for the cloud. Only half of survey respondents expect to gain cost savings with cloud, and only 28% expect it to fundamentally change their operating model.

The survey also highlights differences in the rate of cloud adoption among countries. Australia, Italy and Denmark lead the way, with almost a third of their respondents saying their organizations are moving to full implementation. Singapore is readying itself to follow in their footsteps.

Governments also vary in their concerns and challenges. Respondents in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are the most worried about security.

Security is even more of a concern for government than it is for the private sector, but some sort of certification of cloud services, particularly by a government body, would ease those concerns considerably, smoothing the way for bureaucracies to proceed. Almost 80% of survey respondents said this would help.

As for the possibility of governments’ supporting the use of cloud for their constituents, data security and privacy issues are a priority, but some countries seem to worry about this more than others. Almost two-thirds of respondents in Singapore, Canada, the U.K., South Africa and the U.S. cited security and privacy as a challenge, compared with just 31% in the Netherlands. South Africa faces a broad array of challenges: security and privacy tied in the survey with lack of resources/skills to assess or implement a cloud environment (both cited by 59% of respondents), closely followed by lack of funding, and potential fraud and corruption (both 56%).

Why are governments moving more slowly than the private sector toward cloud adoption? Because they are naturally risk-averse. There is no profit incentive tempting government enterprises, or their managers, to roll the dice. But a calamitous failure in, say, privacy protection could ruin careers.

Another factor is the sheer size and scope of government operations. As KPMG in Canada partner Ken Cochrane explains in the report, "Governments are generally very large, very complex, and run literally hundreds of different programs, each equivalent to business lines in the private sector." This can make it difficult to develop a broad, government-wide cloud strategy.

Yet governments are moving forward, even if tentatively so far. Fittingly, the instrument driving cautious bureaucracies ahead is policy. A growing number of national governments have adopted, or are adopting, policies that drive a movement toward cloud-based processes. Essentially, the decision is being made at the top, causing the necessary incentives to fall naturally into place.